Child Protective Services Investigates Girl's Drowning
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IRVING (CBSDFW.COM) - Child Protective Services has opened an investigation into the drowning of a 10-year-old girl and near-drowning of her two brothers.
Police say August Smith, 10, died after she and the boys – ages nine and eleven – went in over their heads in an apartment complex pool.
As of Thursday afternoon, Irving Police say the boys remain on life support at Children's Dallas.
CPS says the family involved has a history with the state agency, but a spokesperson would not provide details on a prior case.
Wednesday afternoon, Irving police say a mother was in the pool with her five children, ages three to eleven, when the three oldest children gravitated toward the deep end of the pool where the depth was six feet.
Police say the mother and the children did not know how to swim. The mother was tending to the younger children in the shallow end when the older children went into the deep end. She called over two witnesses, including a maintenance worker, who jumped in to retrieve the girl and one boy.
Paramedics arrived and pulled out the second boy.
Neighbors say the mother recently moved with the children to the apartment complex. No one answered the door Thursday afternoon.
Irene Arellano lives next to the pool and saw the rescue attempt. The grandmother usually keeps an eye out for unattended children, but says her blinds were closed yesterday.
"I would have yelled or called police. Something. I would have panicked and run and tried to do something. It's hard," she said.
She says she spoke with the mother's boyfriend after first responders got to the scene.
"He said they didn't know how to swim. That's why he never took them swimming," Arellano said.
First responders described the pool water as cloudy and said they could not see the bottom drain, and had to go by touch when they tried to rescue the third child.
Police took water samples for testing, and will look at whether the water quality played a role in the rescue attempt.
A spokesperson for the property ownership group, Wilkinson Asset Management, says the company is cooperating with police. The spokesperson says the pool is cleaned and tested daily.
Child Protective Services says it will review its own history of involvement with the victims' family, and provide information on that review in a couple of weeks. The investigation into Wednesday's drowning can take up to 30 days.
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